The One That Got Away
by Matsuri Ai
Summary: What if Amu never made it to the airport before Ikuto left? Amu is now seventeen and her family has moved away from her childhood home and friends, she now lives on campus at her high school. One day feeling nostalgic she decides to return to her old neighborhood where she sees a familiar figure standing in front of her old home. Has life given Amu a second chance at love?
1. Chapter 1

_From complete black a blurred memory began to form inside her mind. The border was fuzzy yet everything inside it was so clear. Having no choice but to watch the events unfold she relived the memory in progress. _

…

As she ran down the airport corridor gasping for breath, Seiyo Academy sixth grader Hinamori Amu exclaimed in exasperation, "Sheesh! This place is so confusing with all its different terminals I got lost!"

Only adding to her feeling of desperation were her Shugo Charas Ran, Miki, and Su with a, "Hurry!" yelled by Ran and a, "You're late!" by Miki.

As she continued running through the crowd the sight of two familiar blonde haired figures came into focus; those of her friends Hotori Tadase and Tsukiyomi, or Hoshino for her stage name, Utau caught her eye.

"Amu-chan!" yelled Tadase.

Amu ran towards her friends and stopped hunching over in an attempt to catch her breath. With obvious annoyance Utau began to reprimand Amu, "You're late! Ikuto left already!"

Shock overcame Amu's face, "No way." she said in disbelief.

Tadase attempting to comfort Amu urged, "If you go now, maybe you can catch him at the security gate."

With new found hope Amu began to run towards the security gate of the airport. Shoving and clawing her way through hoards of people.

Amu began thinking in desperation, "Ikuto! Wait, I still have… something to tell you!"

Expressing her frustration she exclaimed out loud, "There are too many people! I can't find him!"

Desperately with all her might Amu screamed at the top of her lungs in hopes that the one she wanted to see the most would hear her, "IKUTO!"

…

By the time she had gotten to the security gate there was no sign of Ikuto. She searched through the crowd in the hopes that perhaps he had yet to pass through the gates but to no avail, Ikuto was nowhere in sight. In order to confirm whether or not he had already gone Amu shoved her way through the crowd towards one of the guards at the security gates.

"Ex-excuse me." she said between gasps.

"Yes? What is it?" asked the guard.

With eyes seeking answers Amu asked the guard, "Do you remember seeing a tall blue haired boy come through here earlier? He's in his late teens and should have been carrying a violin case with him." Hoping the guard would deny ever seeing any one of that description pass through earlier; Amu's hopes were crushed when the guard confirmed her worst fear.

"Ah-, he began. Yes that young man came through here not too long ago actually. Although it took a while for him to go through since he had a lot of metal on him."

Amu's face sank with feelings of loss.

The guard continued, "It makes no sense why anyone would put on so much metal in the first place especially if they know they have to go through a metal detector before boarding a plane. It's almost as if he was trying to waste as much time here as possible. Ha ha. Maybe his girlfriend was late and he was trying to buy as much time as possible for her to come and say-"

The guard stopped aghast when he saw tears streaming down Amu's face.

"Wha- What's the matter?!" asked the guard in shock. "Why are you crying? Is everything alright?" Panicking he began to flail his arms slightly. "Do you need me to call someone for you?" Desperately attempting to calm the young girl down the confused guard fumbled in his attempts to calm Amu who had at this point lost all strength in her legs and sunk down to the floor in tears.

Feelings of sadness, embarrassment, and all around loss consumed Amu as she could no longer control her sobs. She wept in front of the security gate with the confused guard, a hoard of onlookers, and the sound of a plane taking off in the background. Whether or not the plane was Ikuto's Amu never found out, she just recalled how as soon as she heard those engines roar she had placed her tear covered face in her hands and hunched over completely devastated.

…

_Feeling tears beginning to stream down her face outside of the fuzzy image; the scene playing in her mind began to become distorted and eventually turned completely black. A loud noise began to ring in the background. Eventually that noise began to grow louder losing its muddled sound forming words. It became louder and clearer. _

"Up! Hi-ri! Wa- up! Hina-!" she heard.

Attempting to piece together what these words meant Amu was suddenly jerked awake by a loud shout.

"WAKE UP HINAMORI!"

Immediately following the yelling of that command Amu felt a sharp pain spreading from the top of her head that caused her to jolt up from her desk and break the spell of sleep she was under.

"Wha- what?" she asked shaken turning from side to side as eyes from her surrounding classmates brought her back to reality. Amu had fallen asleep during her History class and by the looks of her sensei whose eyes she had met almost immediately, he was not happy.

"Hinamori!" he exclaimed. "Is my lecture so boring that you find it appropriate to sleep in my classroom!?" he asked while waving his long wooden ruler in her face.

"Umm..." she paused as she was busy putting two and two together that what caused the pain to form on the top of her head was the sensei's ruler.

"WELL?!" losing patience the sensei yelled seeking a proper response.

Jolting out of fear Amu responded, "Eh? N- no sir. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep during your lecture." Flailing her arms and stuttering out an apology was all she could do to calm her sensei's mad ranting.

"Well whether you meant to or not you did!" he reprimanded. "If you think the way I teach is so boring then why don't you-" He suddenly stopped yelling and looked at Amu with what could be described as a face of concern. "Did.. did I hit you that hard?"

"Eh?", Amu asked confused.

The sensei suddenly folded his arms with the ruler underneath one of them and tilted his head. "Well you're crying so…" he stated.

"Wha-?" Amu placed a hand on her cheek and found that it was wet. Her face suddenly flushed bright red out of embarrassment. "What? No!" She suddenly began to wipe her face with the sleeve of her uniform. "Umm..no.." she began. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Sensei~ you hit her too hard! Now she's crying." said a girl at the back of the classroom.

"Yeah come on sensei she wasn't sleeping that long give her a break." expressed another student.

Amu feeling flushed with embarrassment thought in her head, "I must have cried while having that dream. Oh gosh this is so embarrassing!"

With the whole class now reprimanding the sensei for his actions in order to regain control he struck his ruler on the top of an empty desk making a loud noise which resonated throughout the classroom silencing everyone. He cleared his throat and then stared back at Amu.

"Look Hinamori…" he began calmly yet sternly at the same time. "I'm sorry if I hit you too hard but falling asleep in class is still unacceptable. Why don't you go to the restroom and clean your face up. And once you're done doing that stand out in the hallway and wait until I call you back in to speak with you."

Amu stood up from her desk and walked out of the classroom. Once she shut the door behind her she made her way down the hall to the nearest girl's restroom and found that luckily it was empty. She stared at herself in the mirror and saw that her face really was a mess. Her eyes were red and puffy; face was all sticky and wet from her tears, what little eyeliner she decided to put on that day smeared on the side of her eyes, and even more embarrassing it seemed her nose had run a little. She grabbed paper from the nearest dispenser and began to wipe her face clean. As she did she began to think back on the dream she had had during class. She remembered the feelings of loss and anguish she had felt and just how helpless she was back then. Having been only a child there was nothing she could have done to stop Ikuto from leaving.

"Why did I have to dream about that day?" she asked herself out loud. "If I was the way I am now back then I probably could have had a better chance…"

She crumpled the paper and tossed it in the nearest trashcan and then stared at herself in the mirror. She compared herself to how she looked back then. She recalled how short her hair was, now it was long enough to pass her lower back and she didn't keep it in pigtails or in pony tails, now she just left it loose. She gained curves and a moderate bust and her wide round golden eyes had become slightly sharper but retained their shimmer. It had been five years since Ikuto had left in search of his father and along with Amu's appearance much had change since then.

A few months after Ikuto had left Amu's family had to move away from their family home making Amu start middle school away from her friends; although they did still keep in touch and meet up from time to time. She was currently living on campus in a dorm at her high school but whenever she had time she would go and visit her family. A lot had changed since that day in the airport. Since the day Ikuto left forever.

Amu began to feel sadness overwhelm her and tears form again in her eyes. When she realized her reminiscing was beginning to sadden her she slapped her cheeks with her hands and wiped the newly formed tears with her sleeves. Unsure with just how much time had passed Amu quickly walked out of the restroom and back towards the classroom in order to wait for the long lecture she was sure her sensei had prepared for her.

…

After the long lecture Amu walked outside of the school building and began walking towards the dorm rooms. She had gone through a roller coaster of emotions today and just wanted to rest. When she reached her dorm room and pulled her keys out of her bag she suddenly felt as if she just wanted to get away. She was overcome with all those memories earlier and that made her miss her family and friends. Then suddenly she got the idea to go back to her hometown to visit her old neighborhood. It was the last day of class for the week so she had the weekend free anyway.

This sudden burst of energy filled Amu leading her to put her keys back inside her schoolbag and just ask, "Why not?"

She walked down the stairs which led to her room and walked off campus. As she did she started forming plans in her mind of what she would and who she would go see. First she would quickly drop by her folk's home since they lived relatively close by if going by bus, then by train she would go back to her old neighborhood to see her friends and drop by her old house.

"Today was full of nostalgia so why not?" she said reaffirming her resolve.

Amu had never just walked off campus and gone on a trip without planning ahead first so she felt very adventurous. Maintaining her resolve Amu walked off campus in pursuit of walking down memory lane.

…

It was late at night and Amu had just finished visiting her parents and was currently walking down the street near her old neighborhood. When she left her parent's house it was already late, they had offered her a place to stay for the night but Amu told them that she was returning to the campus in order to not worry them. However, she soon began regretting rejecting their offer seeing how dark and empty the streets were. It was too late to visit any of her friends and the last train had left a while ago so Amu would have to hope that she had enough on her in order to rent a room for the night. Suddenly all that adventurous energy Amu had earlier began to wither.

"Oh man, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all." she mumbled.

As she walked down the street she recognized that the corner she was about to turn led straight to her old home. Seeing as she was nearby anyway Amu decided to end her trip down memory lane with at least the sight of her old home. As she turned the corner and walked down the street many sights became familiar to her and nostalgia began to overwhelm her. As she drew closer to her old home she noticed a figure standing in front of the house.

"Oh. Maybe it's the new owner?" she thought to herself.

She decided that instead of awkwardly walking back the way she came she would just nonchalantly walk past the figure and take a quick peek at her home before going off in search of a hotel. So she continued to walk down the street keeping a careful eye on the mysterious figure. As she got closer the flickering street light began to give the mystery person more of an image. She noticed that the person was just standing and staring at the home, she was unsure whether or not the person had noticed her closing in. Continuing to walk Amu clenched her school bag and was close enough to the person to get a good look at them despite the flickering light. The person was a tall man, well at least taller than her, with what looked like dark hair which just barely covered his eyes from her gaze, his hair was slightly long enough to have it tied in a small pony tail, he had one of his hands in his pocket, and with his other he was carrying a small case. Amu stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw that case. Her eyes widened when she noticed its shape, the shape of a violin.

"No way." she muttered.

She quickly covered her mouth when she realized she had said it out loud but it was too late. The figure who had been so focused on the home suddenly noticed her presence and turned his gaze towards her. Her heart began to beat uncontrollably with her hand still over her mouth she felt her breath quicken slightly. Her wide eyes began to water and her whole body began to quiver. Mad thoughts began to run through her mind.  
"Is it really him? What should I say? Why now? Does he recognize me? What do I do?" Question after question ran through her mind panicking her more.

"C-calm down." she told herself. "It might not even be him! Stop freaking out. J-Just keep walking."

As if to confirm her suspicions before she had a chance to walk away the flickering street light suddenly blasted full light completely engulfing the man. Amu froze in place as the man gazing at her was engrossed in color. The dark hair she noticed earlier was now a definite hint of blue and the eyes staring at her hidden through the man's bangs were pierced through with the light revealing a stunning purplish-blue hue.

Amu felt her body go weak as the hand that tightly grasped her bag suddenly went limp and caused her bag to fall to the floor tossing all its contents out onto the ground. As she stood there shaking only one word managed to escape her lips, the name of the man she had loved, the one that got away, "Ikuto."


	2. Chapter 2

The inside of Amu's mind was totally blank yet at the same time in total disarray. While she managed to let the name "Ikuto" escape from her lips her mind was a mess with vast amounts of memories and questions forming. Everything she had wanted to ask Ikuto, if he ever _did_ return, flooded her mind.

"_Why did you come back if you said you would never see me again?"_

"_Did you ever think of me?"_

"_Did you miss me?"_

"_Are you back for me?" _

"_It can't be him." _

"_There is just no way... After all this time why would he be back?"_

She asked herself while bringing her hand up to her trembling lips.

She felt her trembling legs finally give way and she slowly slunk down onto the street. All she could do was cover her quivering lips with her hands and look straight up at the figure in front of her with watery wide eyes. Her thoughts were just a jumble of different things.

"_Why isn't he saying anything?"_

"_Is it possible that he doesn't recognize me?"_

"_Maybe it really isn't him and I'm honestly just acting ridiculously for no reason."_

The figure just stared down at her. From where she was the light shined above the man surrounding him and blinded her; she could only see his silhouette. She slowly lowered her hands from her lips and began to open them hoping to manage some words out. However, the man suddenly bent down and picked up a compact mirror that had rolled towards his feet when Amu had dropped her bag earlier. His sudden movement shocked her and she was shaken back to reality when he leaned over towards her with his hand holding out her compact mirror in an attempt to return it to her. She stared at his outstretched hand and slowly reached out her hand to retrieve her mirror.

"You alright?" asked the man.

His sudden question shocked Amu and she retracted her hand. Not knowing what to do Amu placed her hands on the ground and with shaky legs picked herself up.

"Ye- Yeah... I- I'm fine. Sorry about that," was all she could muster as a reply in a stuttering shaky voice.

"_His voice has gotten a little deeper,"_ she thought to herself as she finally managed to get to her feet.

"It's fine," he replied.

She slowly raised her gaze from the floor and glanced over to the man who had at this point bent over again to pick up her bag where he placed her compact mirror. Feeling flushed Amu helped him pick up the rest of the contents that had fallen out of her bag.

"Ah- I'm sorry about this," she said with a bright red face. "I'm such a klutz you know…so.. um. heh heh." Amu found herself apologizing with nervous laughter which only made her more embarrassed.

When they had managed to collect all of the items an awkward silence had formed between them as they just stood there staring at each other. With a closer inspection Amu was almost certain that the man before her was Ikuto. The color of his hair, the shade of his eyes, the violin… all of it just screamed Ikuto.

"Umm…" Amu began attempting to break the silence. "Thank you for helping me pick up my stuff."

"No problem," he replied quickly.

"Oh… um... okay."

The awkward silence slowly began to settle back in again.

"_Oh come one Amu! Just ask him straight out! It might not even be him! Stop being a baby!"_ she reprimanded herself internally.

With new resolve Amu looked straight into the man's eyes and opened her mouth.

"Um.. Hey. I was umm… just wondering… Are you…"

"HEY!" A sudden yell stopped Amu from continuing.

She turned to see a policeman on a bicycle riding towards her.

He stopped, got off his bike, put the brake on, and walked towards her.

"Hey young lady what are you doing out here so late in your school uniform?" he asked sternly.

"Eh?" was all she managed as a reply. She looked down at her uniform and only now had it dawned on her that she didn't change clothes before she left school. She knew high school students were not allowed to roam the streets at night after school. People who did were smart enough to at least take off their school uniforms before they did but Amu's sudden burst of adventure made it go completely over her head.

"Well?" asked the policeman impatiently.

"Ah. Oh. Well... You see…" she stammered. "I was visiting my family earlier and was on my way…"

"What school are you from?" he asked interrupting her.

"Ah- Rangiku Private High," she answered.

"Rangiku?" the policeman asked confused. "I'm not familiar with that school. Are you lying?" he asked sternly.

"No! I'm not!" Amu exclaimed. Offended for being accused of lying she opened her bag and pulled out her wallet and showed the policeman her school ID.

"Hinamori... Hinamori Amu. Second year at Rangiku Private High," read the policeman.

"See! I told you," stated Amu as a matter of fact.

The policeman stared at her slightly annoyed. "Well this school is outside our district. You said you were visiting your family so is this your house?" he asked.

"Ah-" Amu paused. "Um no… it used to be." She replied.

"Well then where do you live now?" he asked.

"On campus…"

"Then where is your family's home? You said you were visiting them," he continued his interrogation.

"Not around here..." With each reply Amu's voice kept getting quieter and quieter. She knew that with each response she was digging a bigger hole for herself.

The policeman stared at Amu and then turned his gaze to the man behind her. From the way he looked at him and then back at her she could tell that he had gotten the wrong idea.

"And who is this?" he asked.

"Oh um..." she stared back at the man behind her with a really awkward gaze.

"Is he a relative of yours?" pressed the policeman.

Not wanting to get the man in trouble Amu was going to say that she didn't know him before the policeman stopped her.

"Well then," he started. "Since it's taking you so long to reply I assume he isn't. Well young lady, _you_ are just going to have to come down to the police station with me so we can get your parents to straighten everything out." The policeman reached out and grabbed Amu's wrist.

"Ah! Hold on. Wait I can explain." Amu exclaimed struggling.

"She's with me."

The sudden voice of the man behind her stopped Amu's struggling and gained the policeman's attention.

"She's my cousin," he continued.

"Is that so?" asked the officer unconvinced. "And what's your name sir?" he asked.

The man stared at the policeman and then turned his gaze towards Amu.

"It's Tsukiyomi..." He paused before continuing. "Tsukiyomi Ikuto."

…

Whatever composure Amu had left in her face left at that point. She felt her eyes widen and it took all of her strength not to just breakdown crying. Before the shock showed too much in her face she turned away when the policeman looked back in her direction.

"Well then Tsukiyomi-san. I don't suppose you have any identification on you, do you?" asked the policeman obviously suspicious.

"Didn't think I needed one to hang out with my cousin," he replied.

"You do when you're under suspicion of lying," reprimanded the officer.

"Is that so?" asked Ikuto. "Fine then let me get it."

Ikuto stuck his hand down his pants pocket and pulled out a passport and handed it to the officer who in turn let go of Amu's wrist.

"This is a passport," stated the officer.

"Yeah I know," replied Ikuto as a matter of fact.

"Why do you have a passport with you?" asked the officer.

"That's all I have on me," Ikuto Replied.

The officer flipped through the passport and by the look on his face confirmed that Ikuto was telling the truth.

"This stamp here states that you just got back into the country sir," stated the officer.

"Yeah I just got back a little while ago and decided to drop by and meet up with my cousin. Anything wrong with that?" he asked.

"No there isn't but I still think it would be best to call the girl's parents just to confirm things," said the officer while handing back Ikuto's passport.

"Are you serious?!" exclaimed Ikuto. "We answered all your damn questions what more do you-"

Suddenly Ikuto covered his mouth and began to hunch over.

"Huh? Ikuto?" Amu stared in concern. "Hey what's the matter?"

Ikuto began to stumble back until his back hit the wall and slid down. Clenching his chest and breathing heavily.

"Hey! What's the matter?! Are you alright?" asked the officer concerned.

"Ca- can't breathe," stammered Ikuto while covering his mouth.

"H- Hold on I'll call an ambulance for you," said the officer as he ran to his bike grabbing his walkie-talkie radio.

Amu crouched down in front of Ikuto and leaned towards him. "Hey Ikuto are you alright?" she asked eyes full of concern. She placed her hand on his shoulder when she heard him mumble something.

"What?" she asked since she didn't quite hear him.

Suddenly a mischievous grin formed on Ikuto's face as he whispered, "I said 'Get ready to run'".

"Wha-" Before Amu had a chance to say anything Ikuto grabbed her arm, got up, and bolted.

By the time the officer had noticed them making their getaway he was in a conversation on his radio with someone at the station. "HEY!" he yelled. "GET BACK HERE!"

…

As Amu and Ikuto ran around the corner they could hear the police officer on their heels as he yelled, "HEY! I SAID STOP!"

Ikuto held Amu's hand tightly as they ran down another corner. He noticed that up ahead was a small alleyway hidden behind a group of trashcans; so he pulled Amu with him into the tight alleyway and quickly crouched down with her behind the trashcans.

Amu and Ikuto both exhausted from the run had to quiet and steady their breathing in order to hide from the officer who they can hear closing in by the sound of his bike. Amu having a harder time suppressing her breath was shocked when she suddenly felt Ikuto's arms pull her in burying her face into his chest. She felt her face flush hot and bright red as she felt his chest heaving trying to catch his breath and his heart beating rapidly.

"I-Ikuto?" she asked confused.

"Shhh... Here he comes," he responded.

The sound of the officer's bike speeding passed the trashcans continuing to yell slowly quieted in the distance. Eventually Ikuto and Amu could no longer hear the man and they assumed that they were in the clear. Amu sighed in relief and suddenly she caught the smell of something familiar, something nostalgic… the smell of Ikuto's shampoo. She remembered this smell from the time he had tried to open her Humpty Lock with the Dumpty Key back when she was a kid.

"_I can't believe he still uses the same shampoo,"_ Amu thought while forming a gentle smile.

She nuzzled into his chest taking in as much of the scent as she could.

"This smell…" she said.

"What smell?" asked Ikuto.

"Hmm?" asked Amu. It took her a while before she realized that she had said that part out loud.

"Ah!" she yelled face flushed. "N- Nothing! Nothing at all!" she yelled while trying to wriggle herself out of his arms. "W-Why are you still holding me?! The officer's gone now you can let go."

"You're the one who was rubbing up against me and smelling me," teased Ikuto.

"No I wasn't! I – I just couldn't breathe since you were squeezing my head against your chest so hard so I was moving to get loose!" she yelled in denial.

"Then what was that smell you were talking about?" he asked.

"What?" she responded.

"If you couldn't breathe how could you smell anything?" he asked with curiously.

"Ah. Well…" Amu looked around her surroundings and saw the trashcans and pointed at them. "I meant the trashcans! Obviously I can't smell anything else but bunch of garbage! D- Don't get so full of yourself! You just had to make hide in an alleyway filled with trashcans!" she yelled with embarrassment.

"Ah~ I see, my mistake then," he replied sarcastically.

"It's the truth!" she yelled flailing clenched fists.

"Uh huh. Sure." Ikuto making sure the coast was clear slowly rose up from the ground and dusted himself off. "It's nice to see you haven't changed a bit in so many years."

Amu feeling her face flush from anger instead of embarrassment yelled "Yeah?! Well you haven't changed a bit either! Still acting like some big kid!"

"A kid who just got your ass out of trouble," he stated as a matter of fact.

"Ugh… Well it's not like we'll be safe for long anyway. He got our names and my school so he'll put out a report about us eventually," she stated.

"And just what did we do wrong?" he asked. "We're both above the age of consent so if standing in the middle of the street is suddenly a crime then I've been away from Japan too long," he replied.

"They can get us for running away from police," Amu stated bluntly. "Or how about lying that you were my cousin? That's presenting false information to a police officer."

"Well… we'll deal with that when the time comes," Ikuto said in an uncaring tone.

"Ugh you're so-"

Amu stopped when Ikuto stretched out his hand offering Amu help standing up.

"Come on, he might come back soon. Let's go," he insisted.

A slight flush showed on Amu's face as Ikuto pulled her up with his hand. She bent over and picked up her bag as he picked up his violin case and they walked down the other side of the alleyway.

…

As they made their way down the busy city street Amu felt nostalgic, with that argument they had just had Amu was reminded of her times with Ikuto five years ago. Where he would say something to tease her and she would ramble flustered. He always knew how to get her riled up. But with that happy nostalgic feeling came the pain of remembering their last encounter at the amusement park where he told her he was, "Never going to see her again." She was reminded of her last futile effort in trying to reconcile with him at the airport only to have missed him. As they walked down the street Amu let one hand let go of her bag, which she was currently holding in front of her, and clenched her chest tightly. Now that she noticed they hadn't spoken once since the left the alleyway.

"_This atmosphere is so awkward…."_ she thought.

Unlike her old neighborhood, which was dark and quiet, the city was bustling with people and bright with the lights of the buildings and neon advertisement signs. Even with how loud it was the awkward tension between Ikuto and Amu was extremely obvious. Ikuto looked like he was deep in thought with his violin case strapped around his shoulder and his hand in his pocket.

"_His way of walking is the same too,"_ thought Amu as a small giggle escaped her lips.

The giggle wasn't small enough for Ikuto not to hear it so he turned his attention down to Amu who flushed when she caught his gaze.

"What are you giggling about?" he asked curiously.

"Ah- N-nothing," she replied as she turned her gaze away.

"That so..." Ikuto stared at Amu's hand that was tightly clenching her chest.

"You got gas or something?" he asked bluntly.

"Wha- WHAT?!" she turned her gaze back in shock and embarrassment.

"Well you're holding your chest pretty tightly so…"

Blushing furiously Amu stammered "Y-You can't just ask someone a question like that!"

"So you are?" he asked in confirmation.

"NO I AM NOT!" she yelled.

Amu felt the eyes of the crowd fall on her and her already flushed face went to boiling hot temperatures. "S-sorry" she said meekly.

"You really need to learn to control your temper," said Ikuto.

"_And just whose fault do you think this is?" _thought Amu extremely annoyed.

"So where are you staying for the night?" Ikuto asked.

Amu still annoyed answered "I was going to find a hotel after passing by my old house but as _you_ know I got sidetracked."

"That so… You said earlier that you were visiting your parents so why didn't you stay with them?" he asked.

"Well… I thought that I'd have enough time to pass by my old house and make the last train back to my dorm so… I didn't stay at my parent's house," she explained.

"That was a pretty stupid thing to do, don't you think?" asked Ikuto.

"Shut up," Amu said annoyed.

"Plus isn't your high school a private school? Meaning it has a curfew. Even if you did make it back how were you gonna sneak back in?"

"Ah-" Amu had no reply since she didn't even think about that scenario. Ikuto just kept pointing out the flaws in Amu's last minute plan to walk down memory lane.

Apparently Ikuto spotted Amu's face of shame due to her lack of thinking things through and decided to leave the subject alone. "Well the best thing now is to just find a hotel. How much you got on you?"

"Not much…" Amu replied.

"I just got back earlier today so I'm strapped for cash too," acknowledged Ikuto. "How about we share a room?" he asked bluntly.

"W-What?!" asked Amu taking a few steps away.

"What? We're both strapped for cash, got nowhere else to go and with what little we have between us I'm sure we can get something. If we have enough we'll even ask for a room with two beds. It's nothing weird. What do you say?"

"Umm…" Having no other options available Amu had no choice but to go along with Ikuto's plan. "Fine then… but don't do anything weird."

With a small smile Ikuto replied, "Got it."

…

As they made their way through the city they stopped by different hotels trying to find a place for the night. Each hotel was either book or too expensive to pay for with what little money they had on them. Amu felt her legs starting to hurt with how long they've been walking. She was starting to lose hope of ever finding a place to sleep when she suddenly heard Ikuto say, "Hey that place is pretty cheap. I'm pretty sure we have enough to stay for one night."

Amu's spirits suddenly perked up. "Which place? Where?" she asked relieved.

"That one," Ikuto pointed to a small hotel whose advertisement showed a price that they definitely could have afforded with what they had on them… there was just one problem.

"Umm… Ikuto."

"Yeah?" he responded.

With a flustered and disbelieved face Amu stated the problem, "T-That's a love hotel…"

"Yeah so?" he retorted uncaringly.

With that response all of Amu's patience snapped.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'YEAH SO?!' THAT'S A FREAKING LOVE HOTEL! I CAN'T STAY IN ONE WITH YOU LET ALONE WITH MY SCHOOL UNIFORM! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK OF LOOKING FOR HOTELS IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT?! WHEN DID WE EVEN ENTER THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT? YOU SAID IT WOULDN'T BE WEIRD!"

Amu irritated and embarrassed beyond belief could not control the volume of her voice and honestly she did not care at this point if someone was staring at her. Ikuto taken aback from her sudden outburst regained his composure before attempting to reason with her.

"Calm down. We have no other options. These hotels are cheap and they don't ask too many questions. I'll give you my jacket to wear over your uniform so they don't notice. And you should've noticed when we entered the red light district earlier it's not my fault you're such an airhead. Now what's it gonna be you wanna sleep outside or in a hotel?"

"Ngh~" Gritting her teeth Amu racked her brain for any other options but found none. Amu had to admit defeat.

"Fine." She stated utterly exhausted. "Let's… Let's stay here."

"Alright then," Ikuto said triumphantly.

With a look of complete defeat and at a loss for words at how unfazed Ikuto was about the situation, Amu followed Ikuto inside the love hotel.

**To all the people who took the time to read the first chapter know that I am very grateful. This is my first fan fiction so I was really nervous about posting it but based on the nice comments I have gotten so far I am assuming it's not terrible. I am sorry it took so long to get chapter 2 out but I am in college so I usually do not have enough free time to sit down and write. I will try my best to get each chapter out as soon as I can maybe as a monthly update or more frequent depending on the demand. This is a fanfic idea that I have had for a while now and to be honest I'm making up things as I go along. So please feel free to put any critiques so I can write a good enough fan fiction to entertain you all. Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed it!**


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